Containers for beverages such as milk, cream, other dairy products, juices, and the like, are conventionally constructed from thermoplastic coated paperboard. Typically, these containers include a top end closure with a folded gable roof having a vertically projecting seal at the roof ridge for sealing the container and providing a readily available pouring spout when the contents of the container are to be dispensed. At times, various additional means are provided for enhancing the folding over of the gable roof into a slant top or flat top configuration, retaining the typical pouring spout feature.
Coated paperboard blanks for constructing such a container are made on converting machines similar to those disclosed by Monroe et al. U.S. Pat. No. 2,682,208 and Earp U.S. Pat. No. 3,731,600. After construction, the blanks are processed by forming, filling and sealing machines, such as those disclosed by Monroe et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,303,761, Allen U.S. Pat. No. 3,918,236, Egleston U.S. Pat. No. 3,398,659 or Young U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,833, to produce the formed, filled and sealed containers of the type referred to above and shown and described in Egleston et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,270,940 and 3,120,335.
A flat top arrangement which does not include a gable top configuration is shown and described in Lisiecki U.S. Pat. No. 4,397,415. The latter arrangement is adaptable to being fully opened at the top to dispense a frozen juice concentrate therethrough.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,422,570 is an example of an improved flat top end closure for a liquid carrying, paperboard container wherein the sealed fin previously used in conjunction with flat end closures is not required, but wherein a pitcher pour spout is included. An external lift tab is integrally formed one outer closure panel for initial lifting of a portion of the pitcher pour spout, and an underlying lift tab is formed on one fold-back closure panel of another portion of the pitcher pour spout, in order to facilitate the opening process.
While the above types of containers have been generally satisfactory for milk and juice products, it is desirable in some instances to utilize a similar square or rectangular thermoplastic coated paperboard container for milk or juices with a flat top closure arrangement which is adaptable to being partially opened to expose an opening on the flat surface, rather than having the conventional pouring spout arrangement integrally formed thereon. Such a container is shown and described in Lisiecki U.S. Pat. No. 4,520,930.